2022, d. Deborah Chou - 6 episodes - Disney+
Besides the return of Star Wars to theatres with Episode VII, no Star Wars offering has been as demanded, as hotly anticipated as Ewan McGregor's return to the role of Obi-Wan. The kids who grew up on the Prequels and the Clone Wars are now adults, and they've been wanting more of McGregor's Jedi. Even the bitter old-heads, poo-pooers of the Prequels, had to admit McGregor's Obi-Wan was a highlight, and his return would be most welcome.
It was supposed to be a movie, part of Disney's "A Star Wars Story" slate, but the failure of Solo basically killed that dream. But the rumours swirled for a long time that the dream would be resurrected as "content" for Disney+.
Upon its arrival, like most everything Star Wars these days, Obi-Wan Kenobi was met with the same mixed bag of reactions - from genuine excitement to mild disappointment to the unfortunate subculture of internet trolls and their extremely loud vehement racism.
There's much to be said about the culture surrounding Star Wars, but I'm not reviewing fandom, I'm reviewing the show... and watching the show, two very specific things quickly became clear: the budget just isn't there to be able to make a live action series still feel movie quality, and the Volume video-soundstage is showing its limitations.
The Star Wars viewer has been *mostly* spoiled by how seemingly limitless the budget for Star Wars films has been (quickly forgetting the low budgets of The Star Wars Holiday Special and two live-action Ewoks TV movies), and while it seemed The Mandalorian had a hefty investment to start, the level of investment has diminshed with each subsequent release (as Disney+ subscribership must have stabilized by now).
In that reduced budget also is probably a mandate to rely more and more upon the Volume (the Disney-developed soundstage featuring a 360 degree digital backdrop that is effectively a very high-tech version of matte painting) which, when used correctly can really enhance a set and look quite wonderful. However, when used incorrectly, it does enter a sort of uncanny landscape, where you know something's not right, but can't quite peg it. When used incorrectly, or pushed to its limits, as it has been in all the Star Wars shows and even in Thor: Love and Thunder, it makes a scene -- no matter how large its intended to appear -- feel very confined. And a lot of Obi-Wan feels very confined.
Where The Book of Boba Fett was a mess in its story construction, Obi-Wan is at least its better in telling a more linear and cohesive story, providing a stronger character arc. We really don't know much about what the character was up to between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. There have been a couple comic books that touch upon what the old wizard gets up to in the deserts of Tattooine watching over a young Luke, and also one outstanding sequence in Star Wars Rebels where Obi-Wan faces a vengeful Darth Maul for a second duel. Here, we find him right in the middle of the 20 year stretch between Episode III and IV. Obi-Wan has cut himself off from the force, he's toiling away processing meat from some massive, beached beast (how long is that meat going to remain good sitting out in that desert heat I wonder). He's avoiding conflicts and calling any attention to himself because there is a clan of feared not-quite-Sith called the Inquisitors serving Darth Vader by hunting down Jedi and the Force sensitive across the galaxy.
Two Inquisitors, Reva the Third Sister (Moses Ingram, [The Queen's Gambit]) and the unnamed Fifth Brother (Sung Kang [The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift]) have come to Tattoine, not in search of Kenobi, but another Jedi who hasn't left the path of helping people, trying to do right and resolve conflict. While the Inquisitors are there to find this rogue Jedi, the rogue Jedi is there to find Obi-Wan, which he does. But instead of finding a ally, a friend, a brother-in-arms, he just finds a broken, aging man who doesn't at all resemble the once great hero he was. The Obi-Wan sends the Jedi away, and he's found and killed.
Obi-Wan tries to absolve his guilt by reminding himself of his higher mission, protecting Luke, but even that seems empty. And when his old friend, Senator Bail Organa calls, telling him Leia has been kidnapped, Obi-Wan is lured out of his island of solitude and on a rescue adventure which will see him encounter the Inquisitors, find the underground railroad for Jedi, infiltrate an Imperial base, find out the true fate of his old Padawan, and face off against Darth Vader not once, but twice. Of course, along the journey he will rediscover what it means to be a Jedi, to let go of guilt, and find a new hope, just not where he originally thought it might be.
I think in a condensed form, this would have been incredible. Were this a movie, 2- to 2 1/2 hours, yes, I think it really would have been great, with the usual Star Wars budget placed behind it.
In its current form, it...well, it meanders. It has some really great quiet moments, giving some insight into Obi-Wan, or Reva, or Vader's states of mind, giving us bits of back story or hints at old wounds coming to the surface. These are some of the better moments in the show, actually. But then there are other quiet moments that seem to serve mainly as reinforcement of things we already know, or bits of unnecessary world expansion/fan service, or even just cute asides. Filler. We get new allies for Obi-Wan in the form of Kumail Nanjiani, Indira Varma, Maya Erskine and O'Shea Jackson Jr. who either get too much attention for what minimal role they play, or not enough. Even the opponents Obi-Wan faces, the Inquisitors or even Luke's Uncle Owen (Joel Edgerton) are given too much time so as to dilute their overall impact. Tightening the story, slimming it down would make all of these characters pop in a way that doesn't work when doing a Disney Plus-style limited series (the D+ limited series is not quite movie, not quite TV show, but in most cases so far hasn't effectively figured out how to operate as its own distinct narrative).
The budget limitations are kind of brutal in this. The sets vary between gorgeous and thrifty, with more than a few quarry-like environments (some of which have their scale confined by the Volume) to underwhelm. Even on some of the better sets, the extras feel out of place or uncertain of their position (one particular scene of an infantry of Stormtroopers assembling in front of a large blast door looks more like a Comic Con cosplay gathering for a photo shoot). Some CGI effects feel on part with CW Arrowverse programming, which suits them just fine, but it's a far cry from what we expect from Star Wars.
But the biggest side effect of the budget limitations and expanded length is how it impacts the logical storytelling. The siege in episode 5 feels like a budgetary necessity, where instead a sort of "space siege" in an asteroid field or something could have happened. There's not a lot of logic to why a Star Destroy can't just blast them from the sky. In some cases, if there had been less time to draw out these sequences, there would be less time to think about all the different ways they could go down. In other cases more money could have led to more impressive action and effects and that kind of dazzle and pop can go a long way to distract from illogical storytelling.
Within Obi-Wan however, I got something I now love in Star Wars that I never even considered before, which is what Leia as a child was like, and what her life on Alderaan was like. This series exploration, and the casting of Vivian Lyra Blair, was close to note perfect. Blair's Leia feels appropriate (and the wardrobe nods to various Leia outfits from the original trilogy were subtle visual cues that helped build the bridge). I don't know that I want "Young Leia Adventures" series now, but I was very delighted by how she was portrayed here. Star Wars has had a prickly past with youth casting, so nice to see them get it right.
It's a weird thing to see Obi-Wan, now Ben, as he is throughout the majority of this series. Much in the same way *some* people were disappointed (/vehemently angry) with Luke's mopey old man portrayal in The Last Jedi I was kind of sad to find Ben here so far past his glory. With Luke, his glory was pretty much just an extrapolation. He was just becoming a self-taught Jedi Knight who's dad let him win when bashing their lazer swords together, he was never that impressive. We only hoped he would eventually become a grand badass Jedi (the old Expanded Universe also delivered on that). We already knew Obi-Wan was an amazing Jedi, so returning to him to find he can barely flick his lightsaber on is really a let down...but it does create some special moments, especially his first encounter with Vader. McGregor performs the role well, but we can't help but miss the glint in the eye and the wry smile, that doesn't come until late.
Speaking of which, I was worried that Vader, and a returning Hayden Christiansen, would be too much, even further diminishing the potency of Vader as a chilling and dark character, but it was in fact the opposite Like two very amazing comic book series baring his name and his appearances in Rogue One and Rebels, the series only managed to enhance his complexity and our understanding of both his inner demons and motivations.
In the end, it's a net positive experience, but I think there's still probably a way to edit this into a movie (and bolster the effects). I've caught wind that someone has done that online but I think Disney could offer it as two flavours...the expanded experience of as series or a slimmed down movie experience. Why not?
No comments:
Post a Comment